We're going to the 4th International Conference on Families with Parental Mental Health Challenges (ICFPMHC) We are thrilled to be participants in a program designed to "share knowledge and experience, to advance the rights and highlight the needs of families striving to live well with parental mental health challenges." - You come, too.

This is the first time the conference has been held in the United States, and we are so looking forward to being there. It provides an unprecedented opportunity to learn from researchers, clinicians, policy-makers and other people, like us, with lived awareness. Saturday, April 26th, is an especially important day for this community of adult children. (Or as MK and DC call it, this "Tribe"). The conference symposium pulls from experts in the fields of social work, psychiatry and policy, to highlight the needs of the children of parental mental illness. With a focus on understanding the impact of being a child and caregiver for a parent. And on spreading the word about the importance of whole-family care when a parent is ill.

If we can help shape a future in which parents and healthcare providers remember to look at the child and recognize the signs of complex trauma, we will be changing the lives of millions.We have to do a little fundraising to help cover the (high) attendance cost - $425, each. Help us get there!Giving to The CROOKED HOUSE is easier than ever, with our Donate Now secure online payment system. Any increment helps.

Learn more about where we are going, and see if you'd like to come along.

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Authors

We are thrilled to have a dedicated and engaging community of bloggers that's evolved in time. If you are interested in joining the team, please let us know.

-CH team

Maggie Jarry, M.S. Coordinates a national working group dedicated to improving awareness and addressing the needs of daughters and sons who have a parent with psychiatric illness.Marin Sardy. is a writer whose work often involves considering her uncommon life with her ill mother, and bringing out the voices of others like her into a community sphere.Mike. started working in the mental health field because he experienced first hand the stigma and isolation unique to the experience of mental illness first hand as the son of a father with schizophrenia. He recognizes the injustice. He also feels the mental health system is very poor and needs to do a better job getting up to date services to people in need. The best way to do that is, " to try and help myself."DC. an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist, co-creator, visionary and founder of theCROOKEDHOUSE.org. grew up with a mother who suffered from bipolar disorder, BPD, NPD and other destructive issues. He has spent a lifetime trying to unravel the effects of growing up in a Crooked House.Alix. was raised by a mother who was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder (then known as Manic Depression) when Alix was four. She continues to explore the struggle for healthy boundaries, worrying about passing on a predisposition to mental illness and of course figuring out how to take care of her own mental and emotional health.

"The unavoidable message of this epidemiological and clinical research is that we are taking a huge and unnecessary risk if we skirt our responsibilities as mothers (and fathers) to handle our own depression, addiction, or other mental disorders. . . .Children acquire [their parent's] genes just as they internalize our everyday behaviors. "Victoria Costello, A Lethal Inheritance